The present invention relates to a remote maintenance system which checks and manages states of various medical devices, and also to a relay unit which is to be used in such a remote maintenance system.
As a related-art apparatus of this kind, there is an apparatus which detects extraction or abnormal state of an emergency device disposed in a case, and which notifies a managing device (see JP-A-2007-58442, JP-A-2007-244804 and JP-A-2006-043270). In such an apparatus, it is necessary to monitor whether the emergency device is extracted, and hence constant monitoring is required. This necessitates a power supply such as a commercial power supply. Therefore, the installation place is limited, and such an apparatus cannot be used anywhere. It may be contemplated that such an apparatus is configured so as to use a large battery in place of a commercial power supply. In this case, however, a countermeasure against battery rundown is required, and therefore such an apparatus is inadequate in a long-term use. In the case where such an apparatus is installed in a remote place, battery replacement cannot be frequently performed. Consequently, there remain problems to be solved.
In the case of an apparatus in which a medical device can be housed, the size of the apparatus is large. In the case where the size of a medical device itself is large, the apparatus cannot house the medical device.
Also, there is a related-art apparatus in which an AED incorporates a receiver, and alert information such as maintenance is sent from the outside to the receiver to inform the user of the AED of an alert status (see the description of FIG. 5 in JP-T-2008-525084). In the apparatus, the necessity of maintenance or the like can be informed to the user of the AED. However, a professional company which manages the AED cannot use the apparatus in maintenance of the AED. When, for example, the AED itself breaks down, moreover, alert information cannot be sent and cannot be informed. Furthermore, there is a possibility that, when the AED performs a process such as reception of information, the user must wait to use the AED.
Furthermore, there is a system of performing maintenance in which a processor monitors medical devices in hospitals through a LAN, and a computer in a service center is connected to the hospitals through a network (see JP-A-2002-233504). The system is large in scale, and functions on the premise that it is used in an environment where the power such as commercial AC power is always supplied, because the monitoring of the medical devices is naturally always performed. Therefore, the system cannot be used in an environment where the installation place of a medical device is not considered.